So I'm working on two stories in parallel as I trudge along with Norpak. One is GrimDark, Lovecraft-inspired, and full of magic and secrets and death and dooooom. The other is only slightly dark and more adventure-oriented. The first is a spin off of a mildly succesful trilogy of GrimDark stories on FiMFiction, and the other is just an OC and co. story.

Yeah, it's pony. However, the first is actually sort of tennuous in it's connection to that world. As in, all the characters are humans.

Moon Diary Supplemental: Black Box (GrimDark, Sad, OCs,)

The story of Luna's descent into madness, recorded in her diaries, ended with unspeakable destruction. But in the aftermath, what had once been Luna but was now simply the Nightmare slept, and the world recovered from that terribly final holocaust. Life scurries about below, and the world on the Moon's horizon is green again. Man's excursions on the Lunar surface have awakened her, and his technology has provided her a new and more terrible visage. The Nightmare is coming, and the fate of the world rests on a meeting of Light and Dark in the halls of a lost and forlorn civilization and on the cold shores of the Alaskan wilds.

Sepulcher of the Lonely Night (Adventure, SlightDark)

Poets Corner, writer and curator of the Corner Books branch in Ponyville, has been planning a vacation down south to see jungles and ruins to do some research for his next novel, a comeback after his recent flop... and perhaps just because he's always wanted to go. But on the eave of the departure, he is summoned to the Palace and given a simple, if strange assignment by Celestia: Take Luna and a package ... on his trip with him and deliver both to one Twilight Sparkle, currently doing research in some rather mysterious ruins.

Bewildered and honored, he agrees despite his misgivings. Why can't Celestia trust her own postal service? What strange things hold her student's attention? And most importantly... why hasn't anyone seen Twilight in a week?

Secrets and memories, artifacts of dubious origin and sinister intent... Those who seek for the Sepulcher of the Lonely Night do not know what it is that they are looking for, not at all.

Remember, rememberThat today farmers did tire of SneeringAnd of the cold and dying hands of an old worldAnd of the injuries of a disinterested court and assembly.Remember, remember, Brave America,That you were once a nation of farmers and apprenticesAnd you were foolish and young once, and that youHad dreams that lit up the night and the world wasWide and your foes dressed in the Red of Blood. There were men once who farmed you, Virginia,And men once who rose up from you, New England,Men once who put away the cowardice of their leaders to defend New York,Yes, even spoiled South Carolina, from you also came farmers whoAll bore arms. They knew nothing of war,Only of the militia square and how to count and if they were luckyHow to shoot a gun. They knew little and heard much of HessiansAnd their eyes were full of stars. Backs burdened with glorious purpose,They died like men and lived in squalor, camped in terrible snowy cold orSkulking in Carolina Swamps. Remember, rememberOh beautiful AmericaYou were a land of farmers once, the kind of men who comeTo the aid of Minas Tirith from the backwoods of Gondor,Held to the task only by their wills and under no true obligation,No whips at their back, hard men with grey and steely eyes, the kindWho come in small numbers and when they pass men weep becauseThe presence of the sacrifice has unnerved them and put the flags of beautiful, rich, cultured Dol AmrothTo eternal and perpetual shame.

But seriously, please, if you have blogger, watch! Even if you don't, drop by every now and then. Unlike this blog thing, which is more me having random fun, that one will be more coherent. And it shall also be fun.

I'm trying to "build a platform" as a poet, establish an internet presence of sorts as I begin to submit poems. I'm getting serious about it now, as you've noticed!

If you like what you see, this time and the next post, then please watch or show it to a friend you know might enjoy it. I'll be posting at least once a week, on Saturday, as well as occasional posts scheduled here and there for Monday or Wednesday. Mostly, I'll be talking poetry, but I'll also be talking about other literature: prose, what I'm doing, what others are doing; fanfiction, the good and the bad; those things they call book reviews. If you have any suggestions, please comment or PM me and I'll write a post on it if I think I can do something with it.

All my watchers, you guys are awesome, and I've really appreciated you all. It kind of blows my mind to have y'all! It's so cool. Drop by, chat me up, I love comments here and I'll love them there!

My poor laptop has died, bereft of a power source. BRAVE LASS. *tears fall* *Amazing Grace is played by Scotty on bagpipes* *Spock sacrifices himself for the many* *Kirk cries over my computer* *Kamina believes in her* *My iPod commits suicide because she was secretly in love with my computer* *I go buy another charger tomorrow and everyone feels rather silly except for my iPod. She died.*(Spenser, just so you know, I win.)

My old account, TemplarWolf, is full of juvenile things and an abandoned novel about vampires and werewolves.

It also has like 4000K+ views?

I wandered by to find like 500+ feedback messages of people favoriting and commenting on things. I feel... I don't know. It's just strange that afte two DailyLitDevs and a DD that the work here is less popular. 0_o

MY 1468 words and I are comin' to abduct all yo jewels and gold and beat you up.

Anyhow. Why am I so excited? Becuase it's the first time I've written more than about 1000 words in a sitting in far too long. I used to be able to hit 1700 consistently, and had a great pace. But recently ,working on Norpak, my endurance is so... bluh.

But now I'm almost back to where I was.

So one small step... Perhaps we'll be back to 5,000 word Saturdays soon? Perhaps in time for NaNoWriMo!

Fun facts:

2nd chapter done on Norpak. I'll be posting just these two and perhaps a third maybe up here.

Norpak, the village inside of a mall, is taken from the name of a REAL MALL called Northpark, which really is in Jackson. The decription is based off of the real mall, except for the absence of the movie theater next to it. That place is so shady, it ain't survivin' long enough to get to the apocalypse.

Sequel to that fact: NORPAK is the name of a maker of Soy Sauce. Wow. I HAVE GOOOT TO MAKE FUN OF THIS. There's gonna be a reference in here somewhere.

Anybody want to look over that first chapter for me? (Did I already ask AwSweet-won't-say-your-user-name-right-because-it-has-a-curse-word?)

EL SHADDAI IS A GOOD GAME AND ITS BASED OFF OF THE BOOK OF ENOCH WHICH IS SILLY AND STRANGE AND ONLY ACCEPTED BY ETHIOPIANS AS CANNONICAL SO YOU SHOULD GO PLAY IT BECAUSE ITS LIKE A MORE INTENSE AND TRIPPY OKAMI

I want you to imagine Fallout. Now I want you to imagine if it was in the south, specifically in Mississippi with pine trees and the Delta. Travelling blues musicians, raiders, slavers holed up in old hotels, settlements here and there with walls made of cast away metal perhaps stripped from old cars.... a world of couriers and mercenaries, soldiers and idealists, thieves and scoundrels... filled with radiation and debris of an unlucky world.

Now I want you to imagine it with magic. It is also a world of terrible, eldritch forces that go bump in the night-- but it is also a world of wonderful things: fountains in strange hidden oases kept green and beautiful by magic and cared for by a fragile race we might call faeries, but who call themselves Alvar, or perhaps the tales whispered in the juke joint in The Ridge make you wander if there really are Griffons and Dragons in the hills around old Huntington, up in the Virginias. Zombies and worse things wander the streets. Wild, shrieking furies hunt in the night... and Dralla (Think... Dark Elves) and strange Gray Men who serve a terrible master wait to ambush any stray human who is foolish enough to walk in the open.

That's... Norpak. (Workin' title. Ain't it dumb?) It's the story of a few Initiates from the settlement of Norpak, a safe and prosperous community inside of an intact shopping mall in downtown Jackson, Mississippi. Selected to be tried as Guardians, protectors of their home of magical means who mastered the control of Lycanthropy, they are sent out into the waste with a caravan to be tested.

It is a dangerous time. Jackson has been walled off by the human communities for many years, and only Norpak has survived for long in the city now referred to as the Valley of the Dry Bones... but its strength is fragile. This batch of Inititates is a few years too early selected, and are ill suited. The Lich Lord, Volanir who sits on the Decaying Throne atop the decaying husk of the King Hotel, has decided that the time to secure his kingdom has come 'round at last. What better time than now, when his borders are threatened by others of his kind and the only humans he truly fears are finally weak?

Becuase post-hardcore is fun. :3 And this band is brimming with mythological/fantasy/fairy tale references. Songs like "Siren's Soliloquy", "Nero's Decay" "Third Temptation of Paris"? All about what they're named after. Playing a short soundbite from Underworld to start off a song? Making some legitimately beautiful songs? Awesome. First album, "On Frail Wings of Vanity and Wax" is pretty much amazing. Later albums... go back and forth. They were always dark, but the last two albums were so obscenely grimdark. 0_o First the tale of a man in the throes of hallucination and insanity, and then the next album about his trip (MIRRORING DANTE!!! I nerded out.) through Limbo and Hell? Oh my.

ANYHOW

So far, the voting on FiMFiction for the story is 3/3. Hurrah? lol. If they don't like it, I don't mind. I love the final product... and besides, it's just a fanfic. (And Down votes from people who don't comment aren't exactly the most meaningful things...)

I'm playing with the idea of starting a group: ~ChristianPoetsLearnYourTrade or somethin' like that. There's groups for Christian artists and groups for writers of the faith, and some of them are pretty good and have some magnificent art. (I think it's... ChristianCreativity? That has some really great paintings.) BUT! I've found some problems looking around:

~Even in good groups, Literature sort of gets the bad end of the deal. Not because it isn't valued (though sometimes that's exactly why.) but rather because, to be frank, it either isn't worth it to separate literature into more than one folder, or because they just don't get much, plain and simple. I don't mind at all submitting poems to the same folder that will also have prose and essays because I'm just chill like that and because when *I* see group submissions, I only see them on my notifications. I rarely look through the actual group.

~Poetry isn't just about sitting on stumps in majestic forests being all Wordsworthy and emoting. It's a craft the same as fiction is, and just as any other craft is. Now, granted, it is also an art, and so there is a lot more room than in other crafts, but it is still a craft. You have to work at it. To be good, you have to study it in more ways than one. You have to read and hear poetry. To be a good writer you have to write, but you also have to read and study and love other written things. More or less... (while this is a problem with MOST Deviant Art poetry) Christian Poets here seem to have the worst of the cliche/no knowledge of poesy bug. They just don't.... connect into the tradition. (Yes, that's a bad thing) There's no communication, no conversation, no framework, no planning, just... random images and sounds and cliched lines from 3 Days Grace/ Casting Crowns/ RED/ TFK.

Conclusion (Heavens I hope this doesn't sound arrogant): Someone needs to disciple Christian Poets. We're heirs to a WONDERFUL legacy, a beautiful one. We count Donne, Eliot, George Herbert, and many more in our number. We have inherited the legacy of the Psalms, Job, Ecclesiastes, and Proverbs. That's some of the most beautiful literature I've ever read. I want to help facilitate the growth of Christian poets not only because I honestly believe that training in their craft will grow them spiritually, but because I think it's a severe and solemn duty of all who would wear that mantle to wear it in a fitting manner.

We take a break from playing Fallout 1 and listening to Diddy's "Coming Home" for the 9009th time to give you... a tagged thing!

Rules:1. You must post these rules.2. Each character must post 10 things about themselves on their journal.3. Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post, and create ten new questions for the characters you tag to answer.4. You have to choose 9 characters to tag and post their icons on your journal.5. Go to their pages and tell them you have tagged her/him.6. No tag backs7. No garbage in the tagging section about "you are tagged if you're reading this." You legitimately have to tag 9 characters.

1.) If you could have any colour blood, what would it be? RED~ I think honestly it's the coolest color, green or blue blood is just silly! haha. I dunno, I suppose blue though...

2.) Chandelier or lava lamp? Lava Chandelier! HA

3.) What's your favorite topic in math (and don't pick something just because it's easy)? Addition and subtraction. It makes sense, it is 100% rational, and there's no arbitrary crap to mess with. And because I'm incompetent?

4.) What kind of carpet do you like best and why? Shag. Because it makes me chuckle, and because you can lie down and it's like a bed?

5.) Your biggest pet peeve with another's writing? Immature thinking, in plot, dialogue, and especially in the greater philosophic underpinnings. FoE is great because of the execution of it's plot in accordance with an unwavering moral center (which is one of it's themes.) and in accordance with the theme. Stories that are gore or action that don't have anything to say? Or random yaoi? Bluh.

6.) What's so special about your first fandom? Hm.... Redwall.... Redwall was a placwe you could be a hero, unequivocally. No media to tear down every hero, no complex politics to ruin things, just a brave and bold and sometimes harsh and sometimes peaceful world. It's idyllic, despite the questing and the violence. I can see now why I like ponies.... haha.

7.) Are you (secretly) a trekkie? Not secretly! I have a shirt with gangsta Spock that says "Trek yourself before you wreck yourself!"

8.) Favourite myth? Beren and Luthien, or if that doesn't count, then the tales of Aeneas/Odysseus.

9.) How do you like your tea? The way it comes, no milk or sugar. :3

10.) How do you like your coffee? CREAM AND MILK AND SUGAR OH GOD MAKE IT SWEET YUM

11.) Are you more likely to believe in UFOs or magic? Magic. I'm cheating, because it depends on how you define either of these things! Magic would seem to fit with the world God has created a LOT easier than aliens would. Not that if he's created them they don't fit, but that from what I see, there's lots of problems with Theodicy with aliens.

12.) Did you lose the game? I WON THE GAME BECAUSE I TOOK THE BLUEREDGREEN PILL AND WENT DEEPER INTO THE INCEPTIONTRIX AND ME AND LITTLEPIP AND MORPHEUS BATTLED MALEFICENT FOR CONTROL OF THE SPICE ON ARRAKIS WHERE WE RULED AS GOD EMPERORS WITH BLACKJACK WHO DRANK WHISKEY AND SANG TO US THE SONG OF AN ANNOYINGLY CHEERY BOY NAMED SORA AND HIS ADVENTURES IN NARNIA BATTLING THE SUPER MUTANTS CONTROLLED BY WILHELM RYAN AND EVIL DUMBLEDORE.

Er, I mean, no. I don't play.

Questions!

1. You have to choose only one book to accompany you on a long distance relativistic space flight to somewhere or another that lasts 50 years. Choose wisely.

2. Best Eye color?

3. Favorite writers of fiction? (2-3)

4. Sonnet or villanelle? Why?

5. What kind of music do you like and what do you like about it?

6. Ever watch any Ponies?

7. Favorite DA artist and writer!

8. Favorite game (computer, console, tabletop)

9. Have you ever paid someone or been paid to write a paper? Or written anything for another person?

I'm working on a new story, and it will be both shorter and better than EV. I'm not sure if its a one shot or not. I guess, honestly, that will depend on FiMFiction and reception here.

Working Title: The Dashite

A little oveview: Lunangrad, a once beseiged city now home of the most well-armed survivors in the wasteland. A Dashite living here lives for the radio's news of the wasteland's heroes and longs for a good chance to do some good herself, and when a new, young hero rises up from the metros of Lunangrad, she is filled with hope. But a chance encounter with the stallion she holds as a hero will be enlightening for them both as to what being a hero really entails.

So... Equestria Vanishing. I'm not sure what to say really. I'm glad I finished it, but I'm not glad how I finished it. I don't really know how to fix it, do it right, and I don't think I will any time soon. It just... went bluh on me, I guess.

I sort of didn't expect to get my head ripped off over a that poem of all of them. There's something ironic about someone basically insulting me and the next post being someone adding me to their deviantwatch. Life is frustrating.

Terrible, terrible day, glad that it's over. Now for another long terrible day and then Sunday and then the week. Beautiful.

I'm plumb out of poetry for awhile. God knows that it going away forever would be beautiful.